Coble maximizing options at SOE Academy

Monday, December 26, 2016
Ryan Coble drives to the bucket in a Greencastle High School game against Owen Valley. The GHS grad is spending the 2016-17 school year at Standard of Excellence Academy in North Carolina, trying to play his way into a scholarship offer for the coming years.
Baner Graphic file photo

One would think the fifth-leading scorer in a basketball-crazy state like Indiana would attract considerable college attention and have a multitude of offers from which to make the best possible college choice.

For Greencastle’s Ryan Coble last winter, however, things didn’t play out that way .

Coble averaged 27.9 points per game last season for the Tiger Cubs, including a five-game stretch in mid-season in which he averaged 37.2 points per game — and had back-to-back games of 45 and 42 points.

Ryan Coble

Despite also participating on the crucial summer travel circuit, the best option Coble could find was to sign a letter-of-intent last spring to attend Division III Anderson University — where it was going to cost him $20,000 a year to attend school.

Coble felt he should have landed at a higher level, but his 6-foot-1, 145-pound frame outweighed his prolific scoring totals in the eyes of college coaches.

So it was all set to be off to Anderson until Coble got a text message from the Standard of Excellence Academy in Charlotte, N.C., to test his interest in attending the basketball and college preparatory institution.

“I felt I should have gotten better offers, and my dad and I talked it over and decided it sounded like a good opportunity,” Coble said last week while back in town on Christmas break. “We decided to take a visit, toured the facilities, liked it there and I decided it was where I wanted to go. Coach [J.D.] Deloney had me to look at their website, and they list a lot of players who have gone on from SOE to play in Division I.”

Coble then had to make a call to Anderson coach Owen Handy to tell him of his plan change.

“He was disappointed,” Coble noted. “I understood that, but ultimately after I made the visit to SOE I knew that’s where I wanted to be.”

Coble speculates that Deloney found him through the Next College Student Athlete website, a meeting place for potential college athletes and coaches similar to job seeking websites like Monster.com.

He knows his size, and resulting defensive weaknesses, were reasons why bigger schools did not come calling.

“A lot of people thought it was my defense,” Coble said. “I know I struggled against guarding bigger players, and laterally I wasn’t quick enough. I could score with them, but I couldn’t play defense with them.”

Coble and the SOE team have played against a lot of other “postgrad” schools, and some junior colleges — mostly with D-I caliber players, he said.

“We played the No. 2-ranked junior college team a few weeks ago,” he noted. “I have been playing pretty well. I’m rebounding the ball and shooting better.”

Coble feels the defensive drills he has done at SOE have helped him to improve his footwork, and his body has also improved to where he now stands 6-2½ and weighs 165 pounds.

“Last year [coach Troy] Greenlee tried to get me to be more of a driver and attack the basket,” Coble said. “This year I’ve worked on my shot and gotten it back. I feel more comfortable with my game now than last year.

“Hopefully with the improved size I will get better offers.”

Schools are noticing, as Division I schools Davidson, Drake, Wagner and Campbell have all talked to coach Deloney about Coble.

“I can either play point or two guard, but I am probably more of a point guard with my size,” Coble said. “With the strength I’ve gained, I’m able to guard bigger players so I can also play the two. We have a guy who is a true point guard, so I play a lot of two-guard on our team.”

The arrangement between school and basketball is very student friendly, and designed to provide the participants with a valuable experience while not costing them a year of college eligibility.

“For practices, we have one in the morning with our coaches and another one at night,” Coble noted. “At night, we try to bring in other college coaches to have a workout and we can do the things they do on their college teams. Earlier in the year we had some small D-I coaches and junior college coaches come in to work with us.”

For the academic portion of the program, Coble and the other participants take online college courses.

“They are general credits, nothing toward a major, and they will transfer to any college,” he said. “We can only take nine hours of classes; if we took 12 hours, we would lose a year of eligibility.”

Even though the ending is not yet known, Coble is very glad he chose this path in order to get the best possible situation for himself.

“I’ve been trying to grind as much as I can on the court,” he said. “I don’t like this break, either. I want to be in the gym.”

The package he chose cost $12,500, which includes housing and meals in addition to the 18 hours of college coursework.

“Financially, this is less expensive than Anderson, and if it turns into a scholarship, we will be saving a ton of money,” he said. “I’m 100 percent glad, and I think it’s going to work out really well in the end.”

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